Reddit mentions: The best author biographies

If you're read or seen "The Fellowship of the Ring", you'll remember that when Frodo noticed they were being stalked by Gollum in the Mines of Moria he said to Gandalf, "It's a pity that Bilbo didn't kill him when he had the chance."

To which Gandalf replied:

>>Pity? It was pity that stayed Bilbo’s hand. Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death and judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play yet, for good or ill before this is over. The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many.

In his letters, Tolkien writes concerning the "Passion" of Frodo:

>>Frodo ‘failed’. It is possible that once the ring was destroyed he had little recollection of the last scene. But one must face the fact: the power of Evil in the world is not finally resistible by incarnate creatures, however ‘good’; and the Writer of the Story is not one of us.

And in another place he wrote:

>>In this case the cause (not the ‘hero’) was triumphant, because by the exercise of pity, mercy, and forgiveness of injury, a situation was produced in which all was redressed and disaster averted. Gandalf certainly foresaw this. See Vol. I p. 68-9. Of course, he did not mean to say that one must be merciful, for it may prove useful later – it would not then be mercy or pity, which are only truly present when contrary to prudence. Not ours to plan! But we are assured that we must be ourselves extravagantly generous, if we are to hope for the extravagant generosity which the slightest easing of, or escape from, the consequences of our own follies and errors represents. And that mercy does sometimes occur in this life.

And just one more quote:

>>[Gollum] did rob him and injure [Frodo] in the end – but by a ‘grace’, that last betrayal was at a precise juncture when the final evil deed was the most beneficial thing any one cd. have done for Frodo! By a situation created by ‘forgiveness’, he was saved himself, and relieved of his burden.

What may we take from this?

One, that "pity" or "forgiveness", in order to be worthy of the name, must be something done contrary to prudence, contrary to our "best interests".

In Luke's Gospel, Jesus says:

>>If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return...Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.

You write:

>I tell my friend that I can forgive people who honestly apologize (something my father never has) and who make a true effort to better themselves. I can forgive people who ask for help and seek help when their problems become too much for them or their family.

But that's just as much as to say you can forgive the forgivable--as if forgiveness, as if mercy (pity), is something that has to be earned. But is that forgiveness? Is that love? To love only the lovable?

And you write:

>From a humanistic perspective, I think there is very little reason to forgive my father for the decades of hell and unnecessary stress he has put us through. My mom has wished several times that he would die soon - but God must have other plans because he will be in his mid-70s in 2017.

Indeed. Plans that we can neither imagine nor foresee. But just as the pity of Bilbo created a situation in which the Cause (though not the "hero") was successful, so your own forgiveness of your father--even though he doesn't deserve it, even if he hasn't merited it through genuine repentance--may have positive effects that you can't predict.

None of this is to excuse your father's behavior or to minimize the consequences of the pain your father's behavior has brought upon you, your mother, or your family. But hopefully I've shown why maybe you should forgiven him--not that by doing so you might hope for some positive outcome in a utilitarian sense, but simply for the ultimate belief in the "value-in-itself of pity and generosity even if disastrous in the world of time."

(Quotes taken from The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Humphrey Carpenter and Christopher Tolkien, and The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien)

Come now, I'm trying to engage you. Like this entire time.

ALL I SAID WAS HAVE SKILLS THAT CAN MAKE YOU STABLE AND HELP YOU HAVE A DAYJOB SO YOU CAN WORK ON YOUR DREAMS IN STABILITY.

Like I said that four times or something like that.

Over and over again.

Have skills people will pay for. Make sure you don't hate those skills but you don't have to have a passion for it. Work on your fun thing. It's unlikely to be the next Beatles because there's not enough brain space, but if it makes you happy, hobbies are great!

Somehow that came out

>NOBODY SHOULD EVER BE HAPPY. ALL ARE SLAVES!

Or something. I'm not sure how I could be more clear.

Anyone I know I haven't cited much here's an info dumb

http://www.amazon.com/The-Great-Stagnation-Low-Hanging-ebook/dp/B004H0M8QS Tyler Cowen is one of the World's best most sober economists. You should fall in love with him (even if he sounds autistic)

http://www.amazon.com/Race-Against-The-Machine-ebook/dp/B005WTR4ZI

Machines might be becoming substitutes instead of completments. This could cause problems even if we were socialists. We have no idea how to handle that

http://lesswrong.com/lw/4su/how_to_be_happy/ All the best happiness research in one post

http://www.amazon.com/Worthless-ebook/dp/B006N0THIM/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1334194677&sr=1-1 A good book about the economics of college degrees

http://www.amazon.com/The-Happiness-Hypothesis-Finding-ebook/dp/B003E749TE/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1334194701&sr=1-1-spell

Jonathan Haidt is sexy and cool and also a psychologist.

http://www.paulgraham.com/love.html How to do what you love only also be practical and not ruin your life.

http://www.paulgraham.com/wealth.html How to get fuck you money if you can identify a good start up and work that hard. (also finance

http://www.amazon.com/The-Black-Swan-Improbable-ebook/dp/B00139XTG4/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1334194849&sr=1-1 Why all the advantages of artists go to a few while most are forgotten because they have trouble finding a fanbase

http://www.amazon.com/The-Consolations-Philosophy-Alain-Botton/dp/0679779175/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334194919&sr=1-3 How Ethical Philosophy can help with not having your favorite external circumstances.

Why modern therapy owes much of it's usefully to ideas generated by old greeks

http://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Cognitive-Behavioural-Therapy-Psychotherapy-ebook/dp/B005TQU5KA/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334194962&sr=1-1

So yea, I hope that made up for claims you find spurious.

There are two ways to make dictionaries. The older and most common way was to copy what people have done before and make emendations based on one's interpretations of textual evidence. For example, a dictionary released in the 19th century and still often used by scholars of medieval Latin, commonly referred to by the names of its editors as "Lewis and Short", is a translation and revision of a Latin dictionary produced by a German scholar. This is how European lexicography worked until the very ambitious project of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), which appeared in a large number of slim volumes (or "fascicles") over the course of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This dictionary was made the other way, namely, completely anew, from a massive compilation of textual evidence. The OED worked by cataloguing enormous quantities of "slips", pieces of paper with a lemma (word to be defined), proposed meaning, and a quotation to illustrate this meaning. These slips were mailed in to the editorial office by thousands of volunteers, which could be anyone at all who wanted to contribute. Lexicographers then sorted through the quotations to devise an order for the definitions which they thought reflected the semantic evolution of the word. The OED was unique in its time for its ambitious scope, its method of arranging definitions, and its cataloguing of all the quotations used in it. Nowadays, slips are often replaced by electronic databases. And dictionaries of the contemporary forms of a language like the Oxford Dictionary of English (not to be confused with the Oxford English Dictionary, which is a historical dictionary of English from late Old English to the present day) use collections of both spoken and written language from very diverse contexts called "corpora" (singular form "corpus") as their sources. The result of this transformation in the methods of lexicography is that, where the glossaries of an earlier age were often produced by single authors or small groups of authors over a few years or decades, modern dictionaries of living languages require large editorial staffs and constant revision to keep them up to date. The second edition of the full-length OED was completed in 1989, for instance. The third edition is too incomplete for the editorial staff to want to give a release date, but some sources estimate it will be finished in 2037.

James Murray, the main editor of the first edition of the OED, has an interesting lecture called The Evolution of English Lexicography, which traces the roots of English lexicography from Latin glossaries, accessible here. Edit: If you're interested in the early history of dictionaries, this is the link that's going to be most interesting to you.

K. M. Elisabeth Murray, James's granddaughter, wrote a fabulous book about her grandfather and the publication of the first edition of the OED called Caught in the Web of Words.

A popular recent book that reveals a fair bit about the OED's history in entertaining fashion is The Professor and the Madman.

Some interesting info about the system of slips can be found at this website for Cambridge University's attempt to (finally!) produce a dictionary of Ancient Greek based on modern lexicographic principles.

On corpora, see this web page for the corpus on which the contemporary Oxford Dictionary of English is based.

That's some of the more significant stuff from English lexicography. If you're interested, I can probably dig out some articles on Latin lexicography from the middle ages/renaissance, but basically, the way it worked was that people made glossaries of words that were often arranged by subject rather than alphabetically. Such glossaries, unlike modern dictionaries, did not typically contain the very common or easy words (e.g., "eat" in English) that take up so much space in modern dictionaries. These glossaries usually only gave one-word equivalents rather than definitions, or simply listed words on a common subject together, so that you might have a glossary page for "the calendar" and find words for "week", "month", "Monday", "Tuesday", "June", "July", etc. together, or you might have a section on words for parts of the human body, or words for kinds of food. Alphabetical order only emerged over time. Another point of note is that most Latin texts were elaborately annotated in medieval/renaissance editions (why, check out Vergil's Aeneid with Servius's commentary even in something as late as this early modern edition), so one was as if not more likely to look for the meaning of an obscure word in the commentary, at least as a first point of reference, than in a separate glossary.

Some edits for clarity. I know this post focussed a lot on modern lexicography, but I hope you'll find what I've written of interest for your question.

Beyond the obvious choices, Watts' The Book, Ram Dass' Be Here Now, Huxley's Doors of Perception, Leary’s The Psychedelic Experience, and of course Fear and Loathing (all of these should be on the list without question; they’re classics), here are a some others from a few different perspectives:

From a Secular Contemporary Perspective

Godel Escher Bach by Douglass Hofstadter -- This is a classic for anyone, but man is it food for psychedelic thought. It's a giant book, but even just reading the dialogues in between chapters is worth it.

The Mind’s Eye edited by Douglass Hofstadter and Daniel Dennett – This is an anthology with a bunch of great essays and short fictional works on the self.

From an Eastern Religious Perspective

The Tao is Silent by Raymond Smullyan -- This is a very fun and amusing exploration of Taoist thought from one of the best living logicians (he's 94 and still writing logic books!).

Religion and Nothingness by Keiji Nishitani – This one is a bit dense, but it is full of some of the most exciting philosophical and theological thought I’ve ever come across. Nishitani, an Eastern Buddhist brings together thought from Buddhist thinkers, Christian mystics, and the existentialists like Neitzsche and Heidegger to try to bridge some of the philosophical gaps between the east and the west.

The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way by Nagarjuna (and Garfield's translation/commentary is very good as well) -- This is the classic work from Nagarjuna, who lived around the turn of the millennium and is arguably the most important Buddhist thinker after the Buddha himself.

From a Western Religious Perspective

I and Thou by Martin Buber – Buber wouldn’t approve of this book being on this list, but it’s a profound book, and there’s not much quite like it. Buber is a mystical Jewish Philosopher who argues, in beautiful and poetic prose, that we get glimpses of the Divine from interpersonal moments with others which transcend what he calls “I-it” experience.

The Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila – this is an old book (from the 1500s) and it is very steeped in Christian language, so it might not be everyone’s favorite, but it is perhaps the seminal work of medieval Christian mysticism.

From an Existentialist Perspective

Nausea by Jean Paul Sartre – Not for the light of heart, this existential novel talks about existential nausea a strange perception of the absurdity of existence.

The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus – a classic essay that discusses the struggle one faces in a world inherently devoid of meaning.

----
I’ll add more if I think of anything else that needs to be thrown in there!

I coach HS men's lacrosse and college men's rowing

My major was sport psych, so I learned a lot of useful tools in the classroom but also found it really helpful to read about other people who actually applied stuff in the real world. Even if our situations aren't the same and it's not 100% applicable, I like to read about successful coaches just to see what I can pick up from them.

Textbook: Foundations of Sport and Exercise Psychology. It's cheap and really useful as just what it sounds like--laying a foundation.

Textbook: Sport Psych Handbook. Also cheap and useful, lot of good information.

Pick up something by John Wooden and read it. You don't have to believe 100% of what he says, but every coach should know some basics of positive coaching and sport psych, plus just having it as a piece of cultural literacy.

When the Game Stands Tall was a great book about a coach who took a program from nothing to The Streak. Haven't seen the movie.

Education of a Coach by David Halberstam, a fantastic sports writer, about Bill Belichick. Biographical and written with a lot of input from Bill himself.

If you have anything you're particularly interested in, let me know and I can maybe provide some more specific recommendations. Regardless of what sport/age you coach, the above are all good and useful books.

> When America rapes the Olympics every 4 years and embarrasses the athletes of other, lesser countries (often on their own turf)

Only a recent phenomenon. The gold medal run from 1996 to 2004 was impressive, but the Soviets have long been dominant in that field.

> the country is allowed to enjoy its superior sports on its own time.

How does one define superior?

>America doesn't give two shits about soccer.

TV ratings and attendance says differently.

>Soccer is a boring

Personal opinion, but I must ask, why do you find it boring? Lack of scoring? Then I assume you consider a perfect game or a defensive battle in American football to be an affront to nature. Perhaps you lack the intelligence to understand the overall tactics of the game to fully embrace it. People overseas find American football incredibly boring because it lacks fluidity, but upon learning the game grow to respect it.

>simple minded game

Pitcher throw, hitter hit and run, players catch

Put ball in hoop

Put puck in net

etc.

> designed for poor Europeans

Then what was American football designed for? The two sports had very similar rules and roots deep into the 1890's.

>feel a sense of belonging and purpose connected their respective clubs

Incorrect, soccer was encouraged as a recreational game between organizations. Some were athletic clubs filled with influential individuals, some were universities, others were clubs at manufacturing plants created by workers to utilize their day off. Over time people became willing to pay to watch.

>Which is why they have sing a songs

I assume you refuse to applaud and cheer when a pitcher is on the second strike with two outs in an inning. Or make noise when your American football team is on defense.

>get drunk as fuck with each other while absentmindedly watching grown men

So I assume you don't watch college football

>flail and flop along a grass field

Happens in every sport

>cheering their beta hearts out when they manage to draw a card.

I would recommend not using a phone to post, autocorrect can be so silly. In the sport of soccer a draw is worth one point. Now if a club is vastly overmatched by a superior opponent, but that club manages a draw on the road, the fans would be happy has the draw is worth one point. In the NHL it used to be similar until they introduced the ridiculous shoot-out. But that's what's nice about soccer is that the match is less than two hours long. Extra-innings and extensive overtime periods can be incredibly boring.

>There is no strategy

Ya.....no

>no heart

Ya......no

>no skill

I assume you have never heard of Messi

>it will never be embraced in United States

Hahahahahahahahahahaha

I really like Putting Food By for preservation guidance.

If you are looking for less how to, Barbara Kingsolver's book, Animal Vegetable Miracle is a wonderful read.

This isn't so much of a homesteading book, but Sara Stein's Noah's Garden is one of my favorites. It's about rethinking the way we garden so that we are doing it in harmony with ecology and nature.

I've been a fan of Ben Falk for a long time and he put out his first book not that long ago, The Resilient Farm and Homestead which is awesome particulary if you live in a colder climate. I have a feeling he will be putting out a new edition though soon given how he wrote the first one so you might want to wait on a purchase of that one.

Again, if you are a cold climate person, almost anything by Elliot Coleman is really great. He does a lot of extending the season kind of stuff that is good for shorter season growers.

Edible Landscaping is more for people with yards (as opposed to acreage I guess....) but I think the book is brilliant and well written and very inspirational with lots of resources.

Well, thanks for the advice then!

I just wish that the particular subset of Western society that considers young men like yourself who have grown up with a strict, fundamentalist family as having ideals fundamentally opposed to their "western values" had a chance to meet or interact with you.

Here you are, living in a place and surrounded by values that are so unlike anything many of us in the Western world have experienced and you're cracking jokes about 'fursonas' on Reddit. If you didn't tell us in this TIFU post, I doubt anyone would be able to tell that you're not some 20yo from New Jersey.

I know the world is unfair, but it seems to be almost cruelly so when -- based on your interactions with people on this site -- someone like yourself, who clearly would fit perfectly into a society whose values align with your own is not in a position to actually become a part of that society.

I've enjoyed our conversation and not to harp on this point, but please continue to consider leaving your country. Any other place would be lucky to have you. I know that family ties are strong, but you didn't pick your family and ultimately you do not owe your life to them.

You truly do not need to live the rest of your life unhappy, feeling like you don't belong, married to someone you have to "learn to love." There is so much shit in the world but there is a lot of good too. I know it seems impossible to leave, but that's an illusion. It would be hard and dangerous as fuck, but not impossible. (Edit: as I wrote here, claiming asylum is absolutely something you can do and your situation is exactly the kind of thing it was designed for)

There is a fascinating book I read some time ago called "Dear Leader: My Escape from North Korea", written by a high-level North Korean official who does something like what you've done: he accidentally gives a prohibited magazine that he signed out from a "restricted" NK library to a friend who then forgets it on the subway, leading to the magazine being turned into the secret police and the author interrogated. He talks his way out of the interrogation for the moment, but knows that his life as he knows it is over and that he'll be re-arrested and likely killed the next day.

He ends up on the run and eventually ends up in China, with no money, no family and no friends. It's an absolutely fascinating read and I highly recommend it.

I figure it might be difficult for you to purchase books online, so I've uploaded my epub copy (and a PDF conversion if you have trouble opening the EPUB). I'll PM you the link so the mods don't delete my comment if they stumble across it.

Have a good life and like I said, if you ever need anything feel free to PM me.

For a quick read: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Great story, hilarious, lots of layers, if you want to go looking for them. Fun read even if not.

Two excellent novels that you might identify with. Both long, but fantastic:

Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes. Novel about a young officer in the Vietnam war (around your age), based on the author's experiences. Great book, long, but very engaging and entertaining read.

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts: Just go to the amazon page, can't do it justice here, fantastic book.

A cool part about these is that each could be considered a "Roman a clef" (should be some accents there), at least loosely, as both are based to some degree on actual events in the author's lives. Though liberties are certainly taken, still neat to remember.

The Genius: How Bill Walsh Reinvented Football and Created an NFL Dynasty
https://www.amazon.com/Genius-Reinvented-Football-Created-Dynasty/dp/0345499123/ref=sr_1_74?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1475238145&sr=1-74&keywords=nfl+book

Jaws might be loudmouthed idiot on tv, but he co-authored a pretty darn good book
The Games That Changed the Game: The Evolution of the NFL in Seven Sundays
https://www.amazon.com/Games-That-Changed-Game-Evolution/dp/0345517962/ref=sr_1_67?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1475238131&sr=1-67&keywords=nfl+book

And all hail Belichick
War Room: The Legacy of Bill Belichick and the Art of Building the Perfect Team
https://www.amazon.com/War-Room-Belichick-Building-Perfect/dp/006208240X/ref=sr_1_11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1475238058&sr=1-11&keywords=nfl+book

The Education of a Coach
https://www.amazon.com/Education-Coach-David-Halberstam/dp/1401308791/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1475238301&sr=1-1&keywords=david+halberstam+belichick

Pretty funny insight into players perspective:

The Rookie Handbook: How to Survive the First Season in the NFL
https://www.amazon.com/Rookie-Handbook-Survive-First-Season/dp/1682450341/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1475237975&sr=8-4&keywords=nfl+book

Also Pete Carrolls book Win Forever is an excellent read.
It has more to do with his Trojan days, but is a very clear telling of his coaching philosophy and why he has succeeded in Seattle. That man knows how to connect with people.

Some memoirs... would probably fall under "practical."

• "No Baggage: A Minimalist Tale of Love and Wandering" by Clara Bensen -- Putting this at the top of the list because I love the concept so much. Girl meets a guy and they decide to go on a multi-week trip to Europe together... with no luggage. Basically, all they have are the clothes on their back and what they can carry in their pockets / purse. (I learned later that said boyfriend is Jeff Wilson, aka "Professor Dumpster," the college professor who lived in a retrofitted dumpster to show people how lightly one can live on the earth. More here: The Dumpster Project )
  
  
• "The Unsettlers: In Search of the Good Life in Today's America" by Mark Sundeen -- About three different couples that attempt homesteading in three remarkably different ways -- one in a traditional homestead on an old Amish farm with no electricity Northeastern Missouri where they teach others, one on an urban homestead in Detroit, and one on a farm attempting to be organic in Montana. This is probably the quirkiest, most offbeat title on the list and the one closest to my heart (possibly tying with "No Baggage.")
  
  
• "The Big Tiny: A Built-It-Myself Memoir" by Dee Williams -- About a Boomer woman who builds her own tiny house to live in.
  
  
• "Living Large in Our Little House: Thriving in 480 Square Feet with Six Dogs, a Husband, and One Remote" by Kerri Fivecoat-Campbell -- About a woman and her husband who were forced (due to financial circumstances) to live in their vacation cabin in the woods and ended up making it their full-time residence.
  
  
• "The Shepherd's Life: Modern Dispatches from an Ancient Landscape" by James Rebanks -- About a guy who still raises sheep the traditional way in the Yorkshire Dales area of the UK. He's also published a photography book (since this memoir was a runaway bestseller across the pond) and has a beautifully quirky Instagram account worth a follow.
  
  
• "Meet the Frugalwoods: Achieving Financial Independence Through Simple Living" by Elizabeth Willard Thames -- About a young woman in New England who decides with her husband to eschew superfluous purchases for a few years so that they can build up their savings enough to buy a farm in Vermont and raise their family without the need to work. While I know reaction to this writer have been mixed (it's very "you can do what we did too", despite the fact that the couple had no student loan debt and were from middle-class backgrounds with self-sufficient parents), it is quite inspiring, and reinvigorated my attempts at making conscious purchases.
  
  
• "Walden on Wheels: On The Open Road from Debt to Freedom" by Ken Ilgunas -- About a post-college guy's adventures in living minimally in his twenties while attempting to pay back his student loans. While there are a number of different experiences he discusses, the main focus is on him deciding to live in a van while pursuing a master's degree so as to save on living costs.
  
  
• "No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet, and the Discoveries He Makes About Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process" by Colin Beaven -- About a man with a young family who decides he will attempt, while living in their New York City apartment, to create zero impact on the environment for one full year. (This is also the title of a 2009 documentary about the same man, cataloguing his adventure.)
  
  
• "Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping" by Judith Levine -- About a middle-aged writer who decides, along with her husband, to only buy imperative purchases, like food and toilet paper. No clothes, souvenirs, event tickets, etc. I found this to be quite well-written and another inspiring volume.
  
  
• "The Year of Less: How I Stopped Shopping, Gave Away My Belongings, and Discovered Life Is Worth More Than Anything You Can Buy in a Store" by Cait Flanders -- Similar idea to the prior book, but instead it is a young woman living on her own. An enjoyable read, but I did not find it all that well-written.
  
  
• "Everything That Remains: A Memoir by The Minimalists" by Joshua Fields Millburn -- This book is by the guys who did the "Minimalism" documentary on Netflix. Pretty cookie cutter and not terribly well-written, but again, relatively inspiring. Something I appreciated about this book is that Joshua came from a very tumultuous, working-class background, which sheds a new light on going minimalist. (So often I feel like these memoirs are written by the typical white, affluent, college-educated Boomers or Millennials that have never had to struggle much with want.)

The short answer is: you need to save more of your salary, 15%/year isn't enough. At 100K a year, you could feasibly save $50k a year or more if you really tried, even in New York. Instead of an apartment downtown, rent a bedroom in someone's house to bring rent down to $6-700 a month in rent (can you move in with a sig. other?), cancel all extraneous costs (expensive cell phone plans, CABLE, internet too - use starbucks wifi or work). Take your whole bonus and don't spend any of it. Put it into the 401k, which you'll then draw down on to buy your house. If you live frugally for two years you'll have your down payment by the time you're 33.

To buy my house, I spoke with my parents and lived at home for about 14 months at 26 years old, socking away every penny of my $51k salary (I contributed 36% of my salary to my 401k, and paid off almost $15k of student loans - in a year!). I only drove to work and biked everywhere else. I inherently saved on groceries since food was always around. Work paid for my phone plan. I NEVER carried money, just so I wouldn't spend it. I tutored and picked up odd jobs on weekends. When I bought my 4 bed, 2 bath house for $185k (for 3% down taken as a loan from my 401k), I immediately rented out rooms to cover the mortgage plus some. If I couldn't have lived at home, I would have bought a van and a gym membership near my work (no shit). I'd live in the van for a year and keep myself clean at the gym (ask yourself: what is being a homeowner worth to you?). I think if you're like me, a year or so of discomfort is more than worth it to own your own property.

You can do it, you just need to be dedicated to the cause and do what it takes, regardless of what people say. Everyone told me that I was crazy for living with my parents again and that they "couldn't do it". Most, and maybe all, of them do not own where they live.

It's a lot easier to spend less money than make more, esp. at $100k/year (that's a shit-ton of money)! I recommend these sites and resources - they are a constant source of motivation for me:

mrmoneymustache.com
"Walden on Wheels" by Ken Ilgunas http://amzn.com/054402883X

Making $100k, you can easily do this. Find a way to save at least half of your salary for 2 years and you'll have your down payment and set yourself up with good habits as a homeowner. Easy, you can do it!

I agree with all of that, but want to point out that adoption also costs the adopting family money.

Dan Savage's book The Kid is a great read for any gay guys who are considering adopting. (He says that he wanted to call it $300 Per Ounce (or whatever the number was) based on the amount of money they paid in the adoption process and their son's birth weight.)

I think I'm more interested in fostering (which you actually get paid for, although in reality you better be spending more on the kids than the state is giving you), although I'm a bit worried about what it's going to be like taking care of kids who may have any number of emotional, mental, or physical wounds to deal with. I'm not planning on starting any time soon, though, so I have plenty of time for people who went through foster care to convince me that it won't be that bad.

My favorite book is Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer. It is breathtaking, inspiring, tragic, and yet has a sense of accomplishment along with it. It's a beautifully written novel, and much better than the already great movie based off of it. I highly recommend it to anyone I can!

This book is only $2.99, and is an ebook (if that's okay with your contest rules), so it has free shipping.

Thanks for the contest! :)

Chomsky is off by 10 years.

The real "tipping point" was 1971 when the dollar was completely removed from the Gold exchange standard (aka Bretton Woods) -- which triggered the massive inflation of the 1970's (worst at the end) -- and that in turn led to dramatic changes in the financial sector in the late 1970's and early 1980's (the end of usury laws, which enabled the VAST expansion of credit cards; the first of two decades worth of loosening of restrictions on banking; including the channeling of nearly all savings {including 401k's} up to Wall Street {creating a VERY massive "pool of cash" needing to be "invested"} whereas previously it had been lent locally, etc.) -- and of course the selection of Greenspan and the entrenchment of economic idiocy around "fiat" money (which, along with the modern spreadsheet, enabled the beginning of the corporate raiders and LBO operations that began the process of hollowing out of US based manufacturing -- all that "retirement" money was "dumb" in that it bought stocks via several layers, and only cared about "PPS" quarterly & year-over-year results.)

Add in the significant increase in environmental laws (which began in the 1960's & 1970's but actually hit it's "stride" and became far more pervasive in the 1980's) and the concurrent things like NAFTA & MFN status for China...

And you had the perfect recipe for a DE-industrialization of the US, an increased emphasis on short-term corporate results, and a shipping of any/all "dirty" jobs outside of the continental US.

For good measure, you can also toss in the reduction/elimination of general "savings" in the middle class (mainly because their FICA taxes were significantly increased -- to a level that basically equaled what people had previously "saved" themselves) -- which basically drove people into extended use of credit cards as a means of personal deficit-financing (and all other forms of debt including things like auto-leasing, virtually unheard of before the 1980's).


You can also look at Tyler Cowen's book "The Great Stagnation: How America Ate All The Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History,Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better" -- where he posits that the US had reached the "apogee" of a series of MAJOR innovations and was after that "coasting" on past achievements -- which I think has some merit as well.

There was no SINGLE factor, rather it is a result of many different factor pulling in various directions, with the overwhelming main direction one of a decreasing domestic industrial sector.

The Glass Castle https://www.amazon.com/Glass-Castle-Memoir-Jeannette-Walls/dp/074324754X/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?keywords=glass+castle+book&qid=1570769502&sprefix=glass+castle+&sr=8-2

Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and above all, how to embrace life fearlessly. Rose Mary, who painted and wrote and couldn't stand the responsibility of providing for her family, called herself an "excitement addict." Cooking a meal that would be consumed in fifteen minutes had no appeal when she could make a painting that might last forever.
Later, when the money ran out, or the romance of the wandering life faded, the Walls retreated to the dismal West Virginia mining town -- and the family -- Rex Walls had done everything he could to escape. He drank. He stole the grocery money and disappeared for days. As the dysfunction of the family escalated, Jeannette and her brother and sisters had to fend for themselves, supporting one another as they weathered their parents' betrayals and, finally, found the resources and will to leave home.
What is so astonishing about Jeannette Walls is not just that she had the guts and tenacity and intelligence to get out, but that she describes her parents with such deep affection and generosity. Hers is a story of triumph against all odds, but also a tender, moving tale of unconditional love in a family that despite its profound flaws gave her the fiery determination to carve out a successful life on her own terms.
For two decades, Jeannette Walls hid her roots. Now she tells her own story. A regular contributor to MSNBC.com, she lives in New York and Long Island and is married to the writer John Taylor.

My favorite book in a long time which I'm currently reading is A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. It doesn't have much to do with anything but it keeps me entertained. Definitely check it out.

Second favorite is A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Both are rather obscure of meaning but have a fun precedence (this possibly more comical than the other)

If you are looking for a semi-serious book I recommend The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester. It does have to do with an ex-military doctor but it is hardly the focus of the book. It follows the creation of the Oxford American Dictionary, but it isn't quite what you'd expect. I don't believe I could give you in depth analysis for any of these nor if you'd like them. They are my favorite books (minus Calvin and Hobbs) and are worth a read.

Dofleini mentions that "what was on [the] desk at the moment."

Broom is much less demanding time-wise, although I agree with your sentiments... Not only is it much less polished than his later work, I think it's also less rewarding. It almost seems as though he was warming up for Jest... I enjoyed it, but I'm glad I read it after Jest & Interviews. For me, it falls into the same category as the early Dickens novels: entertaining in their own right, but more interesting as a window into the foundation for more developed later work.

I'd recommend Brief Interviews or A Supposedly Fun Thing as entry points for Wallace, followed by Infinite Jest if you like what you've read.

I honestly can't answer your question thoroughly, but I do recommend this book, The Professor and the Madman, which is about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary. It speaks of other attempts, but none quite as ambitious as the OED. Other languages, French for example, had already been done fairly thorough. The book explains the attempt to both standardize the english language(like spelling and definition) but also find the earliest uses of the word and trace its use over time. The project is probably the greatest experiment in the idea of crowd-sourcing ever over a century before the computer existed. So many anonymous lexicographers and philologists( both words I learned by reading the book) came together out of a collective and noble goal to accomplish such an immense feat. I loved it.

Economists don't agree about much, but there is almost universal agreement that free trade deals like GATT and NAFTA are good for society. They make most of society much, much better off than they would be absent free trade. That goes for people as well as corporations.

The problem is that there will always be some people who lose out and find that their skills are no longer necessary. I don't remember anyone ever saying that wouldn't happen, at least to some extent. I think what's been unexpected is the extent to which we haven't been able to find productive things for those displaced workers to do. Tyler Cowen calls it "The Great Stagnation." And again, I think that problem is largely due to broader changes in the nature of our economy. If globalization had occurred fifty years ago, the displaced workers would just have shifted over and applied the same skills to make different products. But because manufacturing in the U.S. has become so specialized, there's just not much need for low-skill people. I don't see how "corporate interests" are responsible for that trend, except to the extent that they've decided -- rightly, I would argue -- to adopt efficiency-enhancing technologies.

If truly interested you should start with Nothing to Envy. Then read Aquariums of Pyongyang:10 Years in the North Korean Gulag as well as Long Road home which give two very good acounts of imprisonment in the Gulags of NK.

After that I really recommend Dear Leader which is a great book written by the founder of New Focus International about his role in the top levels of the propaganda department in Pyongyang and his escape from the country after running afoul of the regime.

After that a more detailed and encompassing view from the start of the Kim regime can be found in Under the Loving care of the Fatherly Leader which I consider to be a must read, but only after becoming a little familiar with the subject as some who read it as their first NK book sometimes don't grasp it all.

Honestly I've read about 15 different books on the DPRK so if one catches your eye I've probably read it and can recommend a book if there is a specific topic you'd like to read about.

Hey! This is my kind of contest. Here's my list:

1. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Horari -
   From a renowned historian comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity’s creation and evolution—a #1 international bestseller—that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be “human.”
   One hundred thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only one—homo sapiens. What happened to the others? And what may happen to us? (copied from the Amazon page)
   
   
2. [Name of the Wind - Kingkiller Chronicles by Pat Rothfuss] (https://www.amazon.com/Name-Wind-Patrick-Rothfuss/dp/0756404746/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1537668772&sr=1-1&keywords=name+of+the+wind) -
   My name is Kvothe.
   I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep.
   You may have heard of me. (copied)
   
   
3. [The Golem Cypher: T.R.I.X. by B.V. Bayly] (https://www.amazon.com/Golem-Cypher-T-R-I-X-B-V-Bayly-ebook/dp/B072C11JJS/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1537668912&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=golem+the+trix+cypher) - Once one of the best assassins in the galaxy, Cadell is now the hunted. The Ascendency, the ruling galactic empire and Cadell’s ex-employer, has stripped him of everything and placed a significant bounty on his head. Forced to live with the shadows of his past, Cadell hides on the backwater planets of the outer rim. Away from anyone who would recognize him.
   When his old friend and mentor, Salis, dangles a job in front of him that will get him an Ascendency pardon and let him clear his name, Cadell is ready to take it on. Armed with his constant companion, a strange alien symbiote named T.R.I.X. and his skills as an assassin, Cadell sets off to complete the strange job. ( A nifty book but a relatively new author, worth the read!)
   
   
4. [I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid] (https://www.amazon.com/Im-Thinking-Ending-Things-Recommendation/dp/1501126946/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1537669080&sr=1-1&keywords=i%27m+thinking+of+ending+things) - All I'll say about this is that it's quite volatile when it comes to the reviews it's received. I enjoyed it, but many other didn't... It's quite a ride if you end up enjoying it.
   
   
5. [Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer] (https://www.amazon.com/Into-Wild-Jon-Krakauer/dp/0385486804/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1537669320&sr=1-1&keywords=into+the+wild+book) - In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter. How McCandless came to die is the unforgettable story of Into the Wild. (One of my favorite books/stories of all time. I
   also hold the movie close to my heart.)
   
   
   
   This took me a good few minutes, I hope you find something you like through this contest :)

Vindicates it to a certain level yes. http://www.amazon.com/Great-Stagnation-Low-Hanging-Eventually-ebook/dp/B004H0M8QS is a great book mostly talking about America's economic decline but also speaks a little to China as well. China has seen impressive growth by the numbers and in some real world cases but that doesn't mean the system is incredibly corrupt and inefficient. A state managed system can work wonders when all you have to do is do the simple things all the other developed countries have done already (build infrastructure, factories with cheap labor, open up borders). This is especially true seeing what China was coming from in the 1970s, there wasn't much room to go but up. Now in the coming decades we will see how well this development approach will work into the future.

I'm personally getting a lot of great recommendations who cares if Grey's assistant likes them.

[TLC: High middle ages]
(https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/high-middle-ages.html)
Really interesting professor does a very broad overview of the changes happening in Europe during this time period.

[Unfamiliar Fishes]
(https://www.amazon.com/Unfamiliar-Fishes-Sarah-Vowell/dp/159448564X) Actually most Sarah Vowell books are pretty interesting and entertaining. This one covers the time period of Hawaii from when it was a kingdom to a state, when it's soul is being fought over by missionaries, fruit companies and shipping.


[What I talk about when I talk about Running](
https://www.amazon.com/What-Talk-About-When-Running/dp/0307389839) I'm not a runner, neither is Grey, still a really interesting reflective book.


[Cod: The biography of the fish that changed the world](
https://www.amazon.com/Cod-Biography-Fish-Changed-World/dp/0140275010/ref=sr_1_1?
keywords=cod&qid=1566160678&s=books&sr=1-1)
You need to read this just for the charming cod wars Iceland engages in, also a ton of history and geography.

[Stephen King: On Writing](
https://www.amazon.com/Writing-10th-Anniversary-Memoir-Craft/dp/1439156816) Very nuts and bolts book about the physical act of writing and a lot of inside baseball about the state of mind King was in while writing some of his most famous books,

I can post a few links from some books about numbers. I haven't read a few of them, but the history of some numbers like phi, pi, zero... all of them are fascinating.

• http://www.amazon.com/Joy-Pi-David-Blatner/dp/0802775624
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Golden-Ratio-Worlds-Astonishing-Number/dp/0767908163/ref=pd_sim_b_4
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Story-Number-Princeton-Science-Library/dp/0691141347/ref=pd_sim_b_2
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Imaginary-Tale-Story-square-minus/dp/0691127980/ref=pd_sim_b_1
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Zero-Biography-Dangerous-Charles-Seife/dp/0140296476/ref=pd_sim_b_3
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/History-Pi-Petr-Beckmann/dp/0312381859/ref=pd_sim_b_5
  
  Those six are all the history of the five most important constants in mathematics. If you're looking for the history of some of the most brilliant minds in mathematics, I'm afraid I haven't the resources or expertise to help you out.

I like A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by DFW, but haven't read Consider the Lobster.

Echoes Down the Corridor by Arthur Miller - good writing on a variety of issues

The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup by Susan Orlean - portraits of people she interviewed, including a group of teenage Hawaiian surfer girls that made a particularly memorable essay.

Essays of E.B. White - excellent observations and thoughts and insights.

Palm Sunday by Kurt Vonnegut - an "autobiographical collage" so being a fan beforehand helps, but his thoughts are on a range of subjects, not just his own personal history.

Also these two lists look promising.

Definitely Inverting the Pyramid by Jonathan Wilson
It's a bit dry, but it's a great history of the tactics of football, and how they & the game in general spread across the world.

Even though it's about Arsenal, Fever Pitch by Nick Hornsby does a good job describing what it's like to be a fan.

I haven't read this yet, but have heard very good things about Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Soccer by David Winner

Those are the ones that jump to my head immediately.

I recommend:

• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas A little bit like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, but with a lot more drugs and looser morals.
  
• The Last Lecture In the Tuesdays with Morrie theme, The Last Lecture is from a professor who is terminally ill, but approaching it with calm and mindfulness. Inspiring, sad, the whole bit. And short!
  
• Juliet, Naked Nick Hornby again. Pop music/stuttering romance again, and I really liked it.
  
• And, finally, for awesome and funny and easy-to-read sci fi, go for Stardust by Neil Gaiman!

• Deeper/Further/(Eventually)Higher - If I can't be out riding, might as well watch people riding things I never could.
  
• Anything by Jon Krakauer. Into the Wild is an obvious choice, but Eiger Dreams and Under the Banner of Heaven are great as well.
  
• Ride the Divide is a good flick as well, and available on Netflix last I checked.
  
• 3point5. Pro-deal pricing can be addicting.Plus being in the top 5% for snowboarding, camping, and running have to count for something, right?!

Wow. Something I can talk to... I'm an engineer.
I'm going to guess that they mean "decimal place" or "place value". Arabic numerals have set places, based on their relation to zero, that define their meaning. The further from zero you are, the larger, or smaller, the value of the number is! Each spot further down the line is an order of magnitude smaller or larger!
Non-arabic numeral based systems don't have that constraint. Roman numerals, for instance, simply "add up" the value of each number but can have each number listed in the "numerical phrase" in various orders... and still represent the same number.
The advantage to having a system with place value comes in to play when you're doing complex, and abstract, math. Multiplication is an example of this. I don't even know how you would go about multiplying two numbers using Roman numerals... but, it's rather straight forward in Arabic Numeral/ Western Math... and even binary if base ten isn't your thing.
Also, while the Romans, and Greeks, had exposure to the concept of "nothing" they didn't really use "zero" in math (which is too bad, if they had, we might have gotten calculus a few centuries earlier) due to religious beliefs about the philosophical meaning between the concept of "The Infinite" and its opposite, "Nothing" (zero and infinity are both necessary for concepts for calculus... and the Greeks felt that Infinity was a Divine concept. And since Nothing is the Opposite of Infinity, it must be sinister and evil and not used).

Now, I don't know anything of Mayan math. But, if they had a positional, or place-holder, system, then they might have been able to do some very, very interesting math. Unfortunately, it looks like OP is saying that we can only show what the Mayans might have been capable off of the little we know of their counting method, and not actually what they could do...


Here's a link I found after a quick Google search
Here's one that summarizes the bit about Calculus (yes, it's pop-math history, but it's interesting and pretty decently written)

Interesting. There is a good book on the history of the number zero but I honestly don't know if you'd like it or not. https://www.amazon.com/Zero-Biography-Dangerous-Charles-Seife/dp/0140296476/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1526496930&sr=8-2&keywords=zero+book if you happen to be interested.
People have definitely run mazes end decks before but they certainly aren't common. Thanks for taking the time to reply.

I haven't read this one yet, but the thread gives me an idea:

Let's put together a list of essential reading here, and when we're done we can add it to the FAQ.

Please add book title with link and a short description.

I'll start:

Soccernomics -- analyzes the game from the perspective of behavioral economics. A highly entertaining read. Some may find some of the conclusions a little iffy, but the chapter on penalty kicks and game theory is by itself worth the price of the book.

Soccer in Sun and Shadow -- a poetic, moving, and often hilarious reflection of a lifetime of watching the beautiful game. The book is written in short, pithy chunks, and few chapters are more than a couple pages long. But the work itself is a passionate and reverent love song for the sport itself.

Fever Pitch -- a diary of the author's life-long obsession with Arsenal, the book tries to make sense of the complex mix of agony, frustration, bitter disappointment, and fleeting moments of pure ecstasy that make up the experience of being a die-hard supporter. There is a lot about Arsenal, of course. But it's really a story about being a fan.

___

Keep 'em coming ...

If you want to learn a little bit of context and history of what English football is all about Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch is a great book written from the perspective of a growing up to be life-long Arsenal fan. Good sense of humor and excellent writing, not some boring paean to sports-fandom. Even my mother like the book and she doesn't know anything about soccer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fever_pitch

http://www.amazon.com/Fever-Pitch-Nick-Hornby/dp/1573226882/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254612517&sr=1-1

I am also a girl, best friend and I both love marijuana. Its the only thing that keeps us grounded and stable. No matter how bad our day gets, we always have something great to look forward to. So many people have hard lives and sometimes its hard for people to deal with reality or its hard to think about your past. Many people have different ways of relief. Some drink, smoke, gamble, cut them selves, and much more but to each their own. And if its NOT an uncontrollable habit, or screwing up your life or family then why would it be bad? At the least, its just so you can unwind and chill out.

If she's worried about the health aspect I recommend that you buy the book Marijuana Is Safer: So why are we Driving People to Drink?. If she isn't convinced that marijuana is a safe drug then theres no hope for swaying her opinion. It's a true argument on why Marijuana is safe and how it has saved peoples lives.

He wants to be a linguist--I think he would also enjoy the etymologies in the Oxford English Dictionary. I suggest taking him to a public library and sitting him down with a copy of the OED and going through a few definitions (penetrate would be a good start).

You've definitely got a linguist on your hands--if he also gets interested in computers and/or programming, he will have a lot of jobs waiting for him after he gets through college.

Please PM me if you want more help/advice.

Edit: He might enjoy these books:

http://www.amazon.com/History-English-Language-6th-Edition/dp/0205229395/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1377654532&sr=8-2&keywords=english+a+history

http://www.amazon.com/Linguistics-A-Very-Short-Introduction/dp/0192801481/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377654559&sr=8-1&keywords=very+brief+introduction+linguistics

http://www.amazon.com/Professor-Madman-Insanity-English-Dictionary/dp/0060839783/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1377654605&sr=1-1&keywords=the+madman+and+the+professor

I understand it's used :) this is such a great giveaway!!
My favorite book that comes to mind is probably The Glass Castle which is one I randomly picked up in one of those bookshops that is overflowing with books. I also found out this week that it's possibly being made into a movie?! And I'm not sure how I feel about that.

I like to think I do at least one kind thing a day :)
Cowabunga!

I'm surprised that nobody in this thread quoted [this book](http://www.amazon.com/dp/1603581448/"Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink?") yet.

This is one of the most interesting books I have read in the last year or so, and it definitely changed my opinion about marijuana (I used to be against decriminalization, because the governement was constantly telling me it was the Devil's weed).

Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink? is, surprisingly enough, very objective in its comparison of alcohol and marijuana. I think that marijuana smokers and non-smokers alike will learn interesting facts by reading this book.

A few thoughts:

At one point Lewis and Tolkien were going to write companion novels about space and time. You can see echoes of this in the last chapter of Out of the Silent Planet, the first book in CSL's Space Trilogy when he mentions that space has been cut off from human travel and now any future voyages would be through time. There's also echoes of what might have been in JRRT's Notion Club Papers, which has a time-travel element, but was never published.

In addition, JRRT did not care for the Narnia series because he felt it lacked a coherent theme. However, in the controversial Planet Narnia, Michael Ward posits that CSL actually did have a theme: the medieval view of the planets (The Seven Heavens). There are definitely intriguing arguments made in the book, especially as he combines information from Narnia and the Space Trilogy into his thesis. I wouldn't say it's iron-clad, but if I was still in education, or had the luxury to write papers, this is an area I'd love to explore in depth - specifically the influence of Charles Williams on the evolution of CSL's thought.

If you're interested in aspects of their backgrounds that influenced their worldviews, I would recommend The Discarded Image from CSL (on medieval literature - my favorite CSL book) and The Road to Middle-Earth by Tom Shippey (on the philological undergirding of Middle-Earth). The Humprey Carpenter books are also good (JRRT Letters, Tolkien bio, Inklings bio) as are CSL's letters.

Foolproof is a good example of this. Lots of self-contained chapters on random fun problems. (My only large critique is that the first chapter is very out of place; being basically a history schpiel. Mischaracterizes the book.)

Then there’s math adjacent stuff like Zero: the history of a dangerous idea that look at the history of math development.
(Side note: the first chapter of Pinter’s A Book of Abstract Algebra is a top knotch example of that. And very much in place, unlike the foolproof chapter I mentioned.

Then there are things that aren’t quite “pop”, but make themselves more accessible. Like An Illustrated Guide to Number Theory, which is both a legitimate intro to number theory and a reasonably sexy coffee table book that guests can leaf through. (Though I’d like to see a book that pushes the coffee table style accessibility further.)

Gaia's Garden, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle are two great ones. Gaia's Garden regards permaculture and making your garden more in touch with what occurs in nature. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, while it is not a "Gardening" book, is a great read and was what inspired me to start a garden as soon as I moved out of my apartment to the country.

In the modern literature category

Dave Eggers - What is the What. Or A Heart Breaking Work of Staggering Genius by him is also pretty good.

A.S. Byatt - Possession

Also, someone else mentioned Neal Stephenson, I cannot second this recommendation strongly enough! Very fun reads that don't shy away from intellectual engagement. I read Cryptonomicon by him recently and loved it.

I also note you don't mention Don DeLillo although you mention many of his contemporaries. Check out White Noise by him and go from there.

I could probably make some more suggestions, but it depends what genre's and styles you're really into? Do you want hugely post-modern? Do you enjoy the classics? (I notice your list had no Shakespeare, his tragedies are as famous as they are for good reason)

Papillon

Book and Movie

A "true" story about a man sent to the prison colony in French Guiana and Devil's Island. He escaped several times, was in solitary several times. Some of it seems a little far fetched but it's a good read and mostly true.

The movie's not bad; Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman. Lots of "indigenous topless" scenes during one part of the movie so be warned before you show to your 11 year old.

Midnight Express is an awesome true prison movie as well.

Hey it's a book too! Did not know that.

First off, Okun's law is partly observational (though it can be derived through IS-LM), and because of that it is really only tested for "normal" situations, and there are no completely fixed economies in the real world, even Japan has a certain level of churn even when the aggregates hover around zero. Like most economic theories, the predictions are strongest at the margin.

To address the main question, to a certain extent the answer is implied in the question. When dealing with mathematical (textbook) macro, we simply assume that GDP is equivalent to welfare, because on a micro level it is impossible to aggregate utility. From a theoretical standpoint, assuming GDP growth equal to zero is equivalent to assuming welfare change equal to zero.

Now, from a societal standpoint this becomes more complicated. As mentioned, even when the macroeconomic aggregates are relatively steady the underlying real economy can experience tremendous fluctuations. For example, US inflation over the last few years has been overall rather moderate, even though food prices have risen and technology costs have fallen. Similarly, if Consumption falls by a trillion dollars and Gov't Spending rises by a trillion dollars, it is possible (though not necessary) that this could represent a fairly large decrease in consumer welfare even though the aggregate figure is static.

Further, there are socio-economic reasons to assume that stagnant GDP would hurt welfare. Tyler Cowen theorizes that US economic growth is due for a drastic slowdown in the near to mid term, and that because so many contracts and expectations are based on the idea of continuous economic growth this will cause a great deal of disruption. If we wish away these fairly high transition costs, a society that was organized and expecting zero growth would be so very different from what economic science typically studies that it is hard to say what would happen, though leaning heavily on IS-LM equations seems like a reasonable first estimation of what would occur.

Assuming by "numbers" you mean the set of numbers {0,1,2,.....} (commonly known as the "Natural" numbers) you should first know that there is some debate as to whether or not to include 0.

Whether you decide to include 0 or not, no one knows where/when the concept of the Natural numbers originated. In some cultures, notably the Piraha, they appear to have never been developed so if you believe Kronecker's "God gave us the integers...", God appears to have forgotten to tell to the Piraha.

My own view on the origin of the natural numbers is that they probably arose from trade. A scenario, which may or may not be true but I find particularly appealing, is given in Eugenia Cheng's book "How to Bake Pi". As an example suppose that I want to trade 1 salt cake for each sheep you have. I could line up all the sheep and parade them by one by one. As each sheep passed I could hand over 1 salt cake. This involves lining up the sheep, which, having lived with sheep as a kid, I can tell you is not the easiest thing to do. So instead you could just point at each sheep and hand over a salt cake, perhaps, as Cheng proposes in a likely nod to her musical background, singing a song while doing so. Then the song itself becomes the counting mechanism. The reason I like this so much is that it fits well with Eeny-Meeny-Miny-Mo

If you want to learn more about the historical origins of zero you might try: Zero:The Biography of a Dangerous Number be forewarned that this is a pop-sci book and it's tone is a fairly hyperbolic, here's a review that I think sums up this up pretty well.

http://www.amazon.com/Letters-J-R-R-Tolkien-J-R/dp/0618056998/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1395195004&sr=1-1&keywords=tolkien+letters

If you want to read it.

You might also enjoy two of my favorite short stories published in The Tolkien Reader, "Tree and Leaf" and "Farmer Giles of Ham." Tree and Leaf is always a great reminder read for me about the importance of spending your time in life on the things that are meaningful, and of devoting yourself fully to the moment rather than worrying about the past or the future.

Hmm...well, the writer of The Circle wrote a memoir about his post-college days, with a really pretentious title. I have always really liked it, but the reviews are mixed.

The Stolen Child is pretty cool. It's a little different, I hadn't read anything like it before, and got through it quick.

My personal favorite is American Gods. Little weird, but if you're into it, it will really pull you in quick.

And if you're into something creepier, Heart-Shaped Box (not to be confused with the Nirvana song) is probably one of the scariest things I've ever read.

And then as far as YA is concerned, I just discovered Jennifer Hubbard last week - met her at a writing conference.

And then I had never heard of House of Leaves - but it looks SO cool, so thank you haha

[Into The Wild] (http://www.amazon.com/Into-Wild-Jon-Krakauer/dp/0385486804/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397008013&sr=8-1&keywords=into+the+wild)

Picked it up on the fly at my local library in high school. I love non-fiction and the story of a boy deciding to drop everything and move to the Alaskan wilderness sounded amazing. And it was!

Bonus: the book turned into a movie, and it was actually really good!

In The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, the man himself wrote:

> So Gandalf sacrificed himself, was accepted, and enhanced, and returned. 'Yes, that was the name. I was Gandalf.' Of course, he remains similar in personality and idiosyncrasy, but both his wisdom and power are much greater. When he speaks he commands attention; the old Gandalf could not have dealt so with Theoden, nor with Saruman. He is still under the obligation of concealing his power and teaching rather than forcing or dominating wills, but where the physical powers of the Enemy are too great for the good will of the opposers to be effective he can act in emergency as an 'angel'.

Gandalf the White is everything that Gandalf the Grey is, only better.

Read A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.
This link will lead you to one of the best books I've ever read. Written by a guy in his early 20's as well who also lost both parents almost simultaneously, in a type of English everyone in their 20's will appriciate. Absolutely hilarious and heartfelt. Seems like it would give a bit of peace of mind right now.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0375725784/ref=si_aps_sup_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1311606199&sr=8-1&condition=used

We were all 18 once...


Specifically, the problem with "go out to eat or go to a convenience store" is that both of those are going to basically nullify the benefit you have to backwoodsing it. Nearly anywhere in the US you can get a room to rent for something like $250/mo if you're willing to drive a bit. This doesn't apply to big places like New York or San Francisco... but if you're able to camp there, you can probably find a place to live for cheap. But if you're buying prepared food, I don't see that being less than $20 a day.


But look at dry goods like rice and beans. You can actually eat a 1:1 ratio of rice and beans and get a complete protein for a few dollars a day. A fridge (see above about renting a room) is going to be able to stretch your food dollars much further than if you have no refrigeration.


Regardless, you should use this summer as an opportunity to test-run some of this. Go find some dispersed camping sites, try camping for a week.


Also, I want to highly recommend you read Into the Wild: https://www.amazon.com/Into-Wild-Jon-Krakauer/dp/0385486804 -- maybe A Walk In the Woods, too: https://www.amazon.com/Walk-Woods-Rediscovering-America-Appalachian/dp/0307279464/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2165P9GZRK25U&keywords=a+walk+in+the+woods+bill+bryson&qid=1562608312

Apologies if these have been posted already, but I'd highly recommend Simon Winchester's work, particularly The Professor and the Madmad and Krakatoa.

Well researched, well written and thoroughly enjoyable.

The gullibility and smarmy naivete in this thread is just pathetic. Yes. War is bad. What a revelation. Why hasn't anybody else thought of that before?

If you want to feel all warm and fuzzy inside go buy a Hallmark card or go browse /r/aww.

People living in the real world understand that geopolitics is a game of advantage that you can't circumvent by pleading for everyone to join hands and sing Kumbaya. When you appease dictators and cede ground to them you simply enable and embolden their behavior. Furthermore, the South Korean president is hugging and holding hands with a mass murderer who has enslaved over 20 million people, condemning them to a live a life of near starvation and physical/psychological imprisonment. You're the leader of an extraordinarily prosperous, democratic country; have some dignity. You're meeting a piece of human excrement who is feeling on top of the world right now. You shake the man's hand for diplomacy's sake. You don't hug and caress him.

It's just so god damned pathetic how naive people are. What's happening here is that South Korea learned to live under a nuclear DPRK a long time ago. What they can't abide is constantly ratcheting up brinksmanship that is eagerly stoked by a senile reality tv star with the strongest military in the history of the world at his beck and call.

China, RoK, and DPRK have cooked up this appeasement scheme to dupe Trump into thinking he's quelled the DPRK threat. DPRK will keep its nuclear weapons (the announcement that they've completed their nuclear weapons program and no longer need the facility they're shutting down should have been a good indicator of DPRK's intentions for people that were too blind to them up until now) and as we can see here, the Kim regime gets boatloads of photo opportunities, diplomatic prestige, increased security internally, increased legitimacy externally and inevitably sanctions relief. China will benefit from further DPRK stability and increased trade opportunities (and leverage on Trump as well). And South Korea gets to see the sabre-rattling cease and they receive the same benefits China does from prolonged security for Kim regime. They don't want to deal with that humanitarian crisis either. Trump gets a plaque on his wall that says "Best Negotiator Ever" and a polaroid of a North Korean testing facility with a "closed" sign on the gate.

But don't let me get in the way of everyone "awwwwww"ing over this like it's a picture of a cat hugging a golden retriever. Bunch of rubes.

edit: Can't wait to see all the memes come out of this. Kim Jong Un is gonna have his image rehabilitated the same way GWB did lol... But I don't want this to just a useless rant yelling at silly people. So, before you guys start memeing up KJU let me give you guys a short reading list of DPRK books I've greatly enjoyed (I've been fascinated with DPRK for at least a decade):

• Dear Leader: My Escape from North Korea. This is a great firsthand account of an "inner" party member who lived the relatively high life in Pyongyang as a propagandist.
  
  
• Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea Exactly what it sounds like: biographies of normal people who live(d) in DPRK over the last 30 years. This book is shocking, sickening, heart wrenching, triumphant, and any other superlative descriptor you can think of. Can't recommend it enough.
  
  
• Aquariums of Pyongyang. Nothing to Envy describes gulag life in detail but this book delves into it exclusively and I found myself enthralled but revolted at the same time. You'll have to take breaks to process the horror and atrocities it describes.
  
  So yeah, check any of those books out then come back here and see if you're still inclined to "oooo" and "awww" and talk about how sweet this is.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is really great, but be warned that the book lives up to its title.

Also, I love reading about Robert Kennedy (one of the last true American politicians IMO). I suggest reading The Last Campaign. Pay attention and learn from Bobby, and you'll live a good life.

I change up the books on the non-fiction list every year and this one is no longer on the list. It's a good one though: here's a link to it on Amazon.

Students may enjoy looking into Dave Eggers' work. He's written another book I've considered putting on the non-fiction project list, Zeitoun, a wonderful fictionalized work of true events called What is the What, and he is the editor and founder of McSweeney's, which has spawned the cool sport's writing quarterly Grantland and a sister literary magazine, The Believer.

If you liked Consider the Lobster, then you will also very probably like A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again and Both Flesh and Not.

Edited to add that Everything and More is also very good, though it's not a collection of essays.

First of all have you read Murakami's book on running? just curious, as a book nerd.
Surely you've read The Oatmeal?

Ok ok first question. Why do you run Raisin? What do you like about it?

Now a less philosophical one:


So, what kind of stretches do you recommend before running? And after? I've noticed alot of stiffness around my knees and the muscles on the sides of my legs so I'm thinking I'm not stretching properly.

r1b4z01d said it first, but I'll say it again. The book, Marijuana Is Safer, is a sensible discussion of why marijuana deserves a better reputation, and why it should be legalized. It's all based on good science and history, and is an overall good read. Check your local library for a copy, and leave it on their night stand.

I'm in the same boat as you and just started reading a lot of science stuff.

It might be a good idea to pick up an edition of The Best American Science [and Nature] Writing for lots of topics all at once.

I also second the Brian Greene books, early Dawkins, and The Red Queen. But I don't really understand all the Hofstadter hype... I really didn't like I Am a Strange Loop--I found it extremely poorly written, off-topic, at times pretentious, poorly constructed, and overall not a very pleasant experience.

Most of my interest is in biology and evolution, so my recommendations would be:

My favorite animal rights book: Created From Animals - Rachels

A really fun read about poisonous plants: Wicked Plants - Stewart

Another Stewart book about earthworms: The Earth Moved - Stewart

Also anything by Michael Pollan, and to complement that, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.

Zeno's paradox isn't really a paradox. it's actually REALLY simple to explain:

You take limit as the distance between two points reaches 0. This is the fundamental operation in calculus.

Why is it not a paradox now but it was back then? Because they didn't believe in the number 0. There is a really good book called Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea (http://www.amazon.ca/Zero-The-Biography-Dangerous-Idea/dp/0140296476)

A great read! I recommend it!

I'm reading this book right now: can't say if the whole thing is great, but the first chapter and half are (although he uses a thesaurus a little much for my tastes) excellent; it's about his adventure from to independence. Walden on Wheels by Ken Ilguskas

http://www.amazon.com/Walden-Wheels-Open-Road-Freedom/dp/054402883X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372982298&sr=1-1&keywords=walden+on+wheels

> you have usage rights so long as no one else vetoes your usage rights of the claim. if someone does so, you cannot use that property. you are also free to veto any and all from the same claim, excluding him and anyone, or everyone, else from that claim.

So it's "I called dibs" vs "I called dibs first"?

> on a functionality note, i would say this veto for usage rights is done through giant computer system to manage such disputes in real time.

People are going to have to make sure that computer keeps running, and more are going to have to make sure that computer stays coded for impartiality. Getting them to sacrifice time needed to grow food so that they can keep the system in check will require compensation. Otherwise you'll effectively end up with "automated cronyism" or a dead computer.

And since the earth is not a homogenous environment and some areas are more lush than others, how will this system determine who gets the best plots? What if those who are stuck in places where natural disasters or droughts or harsh winters are common try to wrest control of land from those who are in a comparative paradise?

And if someone says "I don't care what the computer says, I'm willing to use violence to take your farm", then what? Does the computer have the capacity to violently enforce its decisions, or can it simply be ignored by those who don't like the answers?

You're describing a system that has the ultimate authority of land ownership effectively giving IT full ownership, a system that takes significant resources to run, a system that could be corrupted, and a system that would be worthless in the long run with an inability to use enforcement when those whose rights it dictates are challenged or attempt to subvert it. Sound familiar?

We've burned the Capitalist system! Live off the land!

>
> this actually allows for today's system to function exactly as is, so long as everyone participating consents to that distribution. which i don't think would happen, but it doesn't rule out the possibility.

By saying that you don't think it would happen, you are acknowledging that this either is an exercise in futility or will necessitate brainwashing and/or genocide unlike anything humanity has ever experienced. I'm going to assume that you don't plan on the latter. So given your general admittance of futility, what is the best alternative that:

• is realistically attainable
  
• provides an improved standard of living for as much of the population as possible
  
• enables continued growth and prosperity as a species
  
• and may be sustainable for centuries, millennia, or more?
  
  Borrowing from Churchill, I'm of the opinion that Capitalism is the worst economic system except all the others.
  
  To be fair, I have no idea what system you're implying other than "The system sucks, I want to live off the land and abandon modern medicine and have an omnipotent supercomputer dictate who can live where and have everything function identically to today's system other than these things and have everyone else also willingly live this lifestyle", which is hard to fit in the standard boxes.
  
  Now if you don't want to change the system, and you just want people to leave you alone so you can go build your farm or go Into The Wild, what's really stopping you? Take the book for inspiration; or do as someone else mentioned and buy some land inexpensively in the southern US, even less if you look globally. Despite your insistence, there are many people in the US who have shunned society and found a little place to call home away from civilization. You can do that too, with enough determination. It's a free country!

Best answer. Related: there's a great book about the creation of the OED, The Professor and the Madman.

The principal biography is the authorized one by Humphrey Carpenter. (Stay away from the one by Daniel Grotta, which contains considerable misinformation.) There's also a very good book about Tolkien's experiences in WWI, Tolkien and the Great War, which I highly recommend.

Beyond that, if you want more information, seek out Hammond and Scull's two-volume J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide.

Fact:

North Koreans generally refer to pretty girls as "Section 5 girls", as they will likely be impressed into service by Section 5 of the Organisation and Guidance Department, which is responsible for Kim Jong-il's private life. Section 5 maintains his guesthouses and villas, and maintain the food and "entertainment" there.

The girls are selected at 13, undergo annual examinations until 16 for final selection, do a year of training, and are stationed from the ages of 17-24 at different Kim holiday homes and retreats.

Source: http://www.amazon.com/Dear-Leader-Escapee--A-Inside-North/dp/147676655X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1409241737&sr=8-1&keywords=dear+leader

A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by DFW is pretty entertaining, and according to Amazon has 368 pages.

Division by zero is just one particular topic. You may as well ask for a book about cross-multiplication.

There is a book about zero. I really enjoyed this book, but I haven't read it in a long time, so I don't remember much about it. But I'm pretty sure it discusses division by 0.

It's not a book. This is an excerpt from a commencement speech by David Foster Wallace at Kenyon College. If you like this, you should definitely check out the full speech or check out one of his three collection of essays. He's also got a number of short story collections, including a particularly famous work Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. He's probably most famous for Infinite Jest, a novel well over a thousand pages in length.

Dava Sobel writes about science in history, and she's fantastic. Longitude, in particular was great!

I also really like Simon Winchester's The Professor and the Madman about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary

Plus it's George Plimpton, who is a legitimately good writer.

Another good one is The Education of a Coach, by Pulitzer winner David Halberstam.

New to the sub. I'm from China so I read him in translations mostly and however the translators differ from each other the author comes across as consistently a J type..the way he structures the story and sticks to a preferred structure over time.

Also, have you read his book on running? http://www.amazon.com/What-About-Running-Vintage-International/dp/0307389839

It demonstrated how J he is - 30+ years being a runner with strict training regime, daily schedule and diet.

TJ is the feeling I get from many of his writings, although he apparently has strong emotional capacity too. It's just that the thinking and logic are almost equally strong.

BTW Ryu is another Murakami that's very worth reading.

$7.95 on amazon.com for the paperback :)

It's well worth a read. I really enjoyed reading it again.

I enjoyed Ed Viesturs book: No Shortcuts to the Top, it was a self focused memoir, yet he shares his views and opinions in a way that came off genuine and down to earth. It is probably different than something you are writing since the focus of the book is entirely on something that made him very famous (First American to climb all 8000m peaks)

I like John Krakauer's books. Into Thin Air was a great firsthand account of a major disaster. It has some controversy, but like anything else firsthand accounts rely on the writers memory of events and those can change wildly from person to person.

Into the Wild is obviously another one of his more famous works. I liked it writing style and level of research, but I disliked the man the book was written about with a passion. Hardly the writers fault there though.

I really liked "The Real All-Americans" about the Carlisle Indian School. Although it has nothing to do with the NFL. Except that Jim Thorpe played for them and he played in the very very early NFL.

I also really liked "The Education of a Coach". A biography of Bill Belichick. Obviously this would have limited appeal outside of NE.

While counseling definitely sounds like the best course of action, and while I doubt free time is limited, if you can get your hands on this book and read it, you might, at least, not feel so alone in the world. Who knows, you might even glean a few strategies from it:

http://www.amazon.com/A-Heartbreaking-Work-Staggering-Genius/dp/0375725784/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413987586&sr=8-1&keywords=heartbreaking+work+of+staggering+genius

tl;dr: famous author, david eggers in his early 20's, becomes guardian of his younger brother.

You could always read his book, which details his views pretty extensively.

It's pretty good actually.

I just read the article and I want to go back to bed: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/07/we-need-new-science-progress/594946/

Peak liberal ideology right here, folks

Edit: I just looked up the co-authors and found that one of them, Tyler Cowan, is the author of a book titled The Great Stagnation: How America Ate All The Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better.

Cowan's fundamental argument is that America's astronomical wealth rests on certain forms of """low-hanging fruit"""" such as """free land""" (which, he generously notes, "was often stolen from Native Americans, one should not forget) and that the benefits of that """low-hanging fruit""" have now ceased helping deliver the same rate of exploitation as it used to.

Simply put, his argument vindicates Marx's argument about the falling rate of profit, and this article with his co-author Patrick Collison is really about how to grasp this pseudo-object called "progress" in order to return us to past rates of profitability.

In conclusion: these fuckin liberals will drive a comrade to drink

Edit 2: This has to be one of the saddest sentences I've ever read lol:

>Along the cultural dimension, the artists of Renaissance Florence enriched the heritage of all humankind, and in the process created the masterworks that are still the lifeblood of the local economy.

I recently finished a book about that! The Professor and the Madman covers the lives of William Minor (the madman) and James Murray (the professor) while also providing an interesting look at the creation of the OED itself. It's about two hundred pages and flows by pretty quickly. Worth a read.

I don't know any but I am currently reading "The Kid" by Dan Savage where he talks about adopting a child with his boyfriend. Pretty entertaining so far.

I know the song. It was on the radio for like a year and a half. I believe that Hunter Thompson is the best (or at least most publicly exposed) example of a person that has taken this quote to heart.

That's why they wrote the song... the quote, plus the excerpt from Fear and Loating equals that song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8gAtTxWhUY

http://www.amazon.com/Fear-Loathing-Las-Vegas-American/dp/0679785892/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1373775814&sr=8-1&keywords=fear+in+loathing+in+las+vegas

Zero is a whole number, and pretty awesome at that. If you want, this book tells the story of zero. And explains why the phones and calculators are different.

My two favorite running books are What I Talk About When I Talk About Running and Run Gently Out There. The /r/AdvancedRunning Book Club also has a good list.

Charles Seife wrote a book about this from a mathematical perspective (which is great, IMO).

He talks about a few cultures, and says that the Greeks, and thus much of the western world, were a bit twitchy about the concept of zero as a standalone number because it represented a void, which conflicted with the prevailing systems of philosophy. A lot of their math was based on geometry, like the Egyptians before them, and zero didn't exist in geometry. How can you think about a non-space?

There are interesting side effects of this - notably our calendar, which goes from 1 BC (-1) to 1 CE, with no zero, meaning it's very easy to mess up the arithmetic of time around then.

Go to a community college for 2 years before university, get a job, save every cent, get scholarships, sell your stuff, borrow textbooks from friends, find a cheap room to rent, and eat nothing but ramen. That's how i did it.

Here's a book by a student at Duke who secretly lived in his van to escape debt. If you're interested, I recommend it: http://www.amazon.com/Walden-Wheels-Open-Road-Freedom/dp/054402883X/ref=la_B00CHGS5YI_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1398049979&sr=1-1

The current print paperback is perfectly nice, for what it's worth. Very sturdy feeling. I have no plans to upgrade.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Letters-J-R-R-Tolkien-J/dp/0618056998

Please let me make this abundantly clear, I am not saying Tolkien is a racist in any way shape or form, simply that he did use race as an influence in his works.

“The dwarves of course are quite obviously, wouldn’t you say that in many ways they remind you of the Jews? Their words are Semitic, obviously, constructed to be Semitic. The hobbits are just rustic English people,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-G_v6-u3hg Its in the last few minutes of this interview

and

“I do think of the ‘Dwarves’ like Jews,” he writes (Letters, p. 229), “at once native and alien in their habitations, speaking the languages of the country, but with an accent due to their own private tongue.” From the Letters of J.R.R. Tolkein http://www.amazon.com/The-Letters-J-R-R-Tolkien-J/dp/0618056998


This one is pretty obvious to me, maybe not racist in a hatred, but definitely using a race as an influence. But the greed for gold doesn't really help.

Here's the book if you want to support his legacy.

Some highlights;

>You will receive on Monday the copy of the 'Story Line' or synopsis of the proposed film version of The Lord of the Rings. I could not get it off yesterday.

>....An abridgement by selection with some good picture-work would be pleasant, & perhaps worth a good deal in publicity; but the present script is rather a compression with resultant over-crowding
and confusion, blurring of climaxes, and general degradation: a pull-back towards more conventional 'fairy-stories'. People gallop about on Eagles at the least provocation; Lórien becomes a fairy-castle with 'delicate minarets', and all that sort of thing.

.
>Z ( Morton Grady Zimmerrnan, who was trying to get a film adaptation of the trilogy off the ground as far back as the 50s) .... has intruded a 'fairy castle' and a great many Eagles, not to mention incantations, blue lights, and some irrelevant magic (such as the floating body of Faramir). He has cut the parts of the story upon which its characteristic and peculiar tone principally depends, showing a preference for fights; and he has made no serious attempt to represent the heart of the tale adequately: the journey of the Ringbearers. The last and most important pan of this has, and it is not too strong a word,
simply been murdered.

The whole 210: From a letter to Forrest J. Ackerman [Not dated; June 1958] letter is a scathing rebuke of attempts to convert the saga into film. Granted, some of them are dated (Tolkien in particular recognized the danger of convenient Eagles moreso than he had dared use in his own narrative), but a few still echo in Jackson's version...

>#9. Leaving the inn at night and running off into the dark is an impossible solution of the difficulties of presentation here (which I can see). It is the last thing that Aragorn would have done. It is based on a misconception of the Black Riders throughout, which I beg Z to reconsider. Their peril is almost entirely due to the unreasoning fear which they inspire (like ghosts). They have no great physical power against the fearless; but what they have, and the fear that they inspire, is enormously increased in darkness.

Also, one nice burn from the pen of the English professor:

> The Balrog never speaks or makes any vocal sound at all. Above all he does not laugh or sneer. .... Z may think that he knows more about Balrogs than I do, but he cannot expect me to agree with him.

Aesthetics are simply important to me when I am buying a physical product, especially in this day and age. I can buy an ebook without any aesthetic value whatsoever, but if I decide I like something so much that I want a physical copy, be it a movie or a CD or a book, if it applies, attraction will play a factor in my purchase. I've been looking for a non-movie cover version of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas for ages, simply because I don't like the glossy, absently considered DVD cover version that is most common. It doesn't need to be beautiful, since I was more than willing to buy the 70s-esque commonplace cover of Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, and there are always exceptions to the movie cover rule. For instance, I bought the 80s movie edition of the Great Gatsby with the Robert Redford cover because it was comically cheesy. I can't even find a picture of it on the Internet.

My Lobotomy by Howard Dully is fantastic. The NPR piece that started it all. Amazon link. It's pretty much about what you'd assume, a man having a lobotomy as a child and what happens after that.

The Glass Castle is another really good one. If you ever thought your parents were weird or grew up without money, you need to read this. It's beautifully written.

I'll throw in another recommendation - "Dear Leader" the story of Jong Il's personal poet who fled. Unbelievable tale of how the top 1% lives in NK versus the abject poverty of the other 99%.

It has a lot of info that was new to me, as an example, there are people whose job it is to look for attractive girls in junior high schools who are sent (their consent is never asked for) to special resort hotels as slaves. A depressing fact for sure, but if you listen to Robert Evans you probably will appreciate the book.

​

https://www.amazon.com/Dear-Leader-Escape-North-Korea/dp/1476766568

I recently finished reading Papillon by Henri Charriere, and I think it would have a lot of the elements you enjoy from Breaking Bad. It's about a French convict sentenced to life in a French Guyana prison camp in the 1930's, and his many escape attempts and adventures. Charriere claims it is his life story, but many historians believe it is a combination of other convict's adventures, however it is still very good. It was turned into a movie staring Steve McQueen.

I highly recommend The Great Stagnation to you. It sheds some optimistic light on the role of the internet while simultaneously stressing that we need gear up America again for the new century.

http://www.amazon.com/What-About-Running-Vintage-International/dp/0307389839

Not sure if it's spiritual in the sense that you're looking for, but it's an interesting read. If you're interested in running and Christianity specifically, I'd check out Ryan Hall's blog. He's a very outspoken Christian and a phenomenal runner. He also has a book, here:

http://www.amazon.com/Running-Joy-Daily-Journey-Marathon/dp/0736944125

That might be more in line with what you are looking for.

Papillon is a great true story.

Even though it is not directly about DN I can recommend reading into the wild (http://amzn.to/1NA0OAN) because I think it shows how being too dedicated to something can harm you in the end.

Other than that there is the four hour work week: http://amzn.to/1VqMekU

Several books about blogging if that's something you are interested in: http://amzn.to/23sLGAX

You might also want to read up on vehicles online,
www.desktodirtbag.com is a guy living in his truck most of the year and there are several good blogs about living in vans.

Thought you might like this book I read once, about the making of the Oxford English Dictionary...

http://www.amazon.com/Professor-Madman-Insanity-English-Dictionary/dp/0060839783/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1454012004&sr=1-1&keywords=the+professor+and+madman

Have a great day!

You might be interested in read The great Stagnation.

Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Marijuana-Safer-Driving-People-Drink/dp/1603581448

I'm sure there are some other good books out there, but I just finished this one and it makes some very good comparisons about the dangers of alcohol vs marijuana. For those who don't know a whole lot about the subject, i think it would be a good place to start.

Simon Winchester is really good. I enjoyed Krakatoa and The Professor and the Madman.

My 2¢ :
While a "discovery" may involve a lot of hard work (i.e. the discovery of DNA's double-helix), at some level it still seems to imply:

1. an element of chance, like discovering a hidden cave, and
   
2. the "thing" was not known to have existed beforehand.
   
   An "invention", on the other hand, implies a thing which was built to achieve a specific purpose, which is the case with Calculus.
   Also, recall that Leibniz developed ("invented") calculus independently of Newton. They were both working toward a common goal to describe phenomena that they knew to exist. Calculus is the shorthand which was invented to solve this.
   
   For an interesting take on this, I'd recommend reading: Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea by Charles Seife.

Everyone else has said great things to you. Here's my input.

http://www.amazon.ca/Zero-The-Biography-Dangerous-Idea/dp/0140296476

For some light reading (a term used loosely here, but hey, I found it entertaining in my off-hours), check out this book. Enjoy!

It's actually total transportation costs that gets me upset with modern agriculture. If you're part of a CSA, the farmer portions out the food into boxes, and transports it to the customers. If you buy a banana from Ecuador, the bananas have to be carefully handled, boxed, transported in a gigantic refrigerated ship, stored locally in appropriate storage. All of this time and material uses a great deal of energy, and also wastes a good deal of food, since not everything makes the trip in an edible state.

Barbara Kingsolver wrote a book about five years about her family's year-long experience of living as locavores. She writes very persuasively about obtaining greater quality of food, feeling more connected to the community and the food it produced, etc. Her choices are definitely not for everyone, as she and her her family were totally committed.

You mention local employment, but I think that's a wash, not really worth mentioning. You could argue both that people like Kingsolver took work away from farmers that could have supplied their needs, but also that the family gave their money away to other local businesses for supplies, advice, and services, all adding to local employment.

Humphrey Carpenter's biography is quite good, and pretty widely available, I think.

You might try getting your hands on a copy of The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. There's a lot of great information on his work there, and I find them generally a little easier to read than the History of Middle-Earth.

>Journalism demands briefness and articles have rigid schemes to follow, so creativity wasn't always welcome.

Fuck them.

Black Hawk Down, by Mark Bowden.

Seabiscuit, by Laura Hillenbrand.

Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, by Hunter Thompson.

Roughing It, by Mark Twain.

These are four books--all creative, funny, dramatic, informative and beautifully written--by reporters.

Read them and study them. Copy the techniques they use, how they craft sentences, how they lead into the stories they tell, how they turn interviews into characters narrating their events.

And then practice. Over and over and over.

I read Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea a few years ago and found it pretty fascinating. It's a really interesting mix of history, philosophy, math, and physics.

Not a novel but "Lone Survivor" is a great book. As is "Into the Wild"

Fever Pitch

Amazed no one has mentioned it. Really helped me see fandom in a different light. Great Arsenal book!

http://www.amazon.com/Fever-Pitch-Nick-Hornby/dp/1573226882

A nice read it's a book about the authors life as an Arsenal fan. Talks about the games and supporter life in the stands.

A must read for all football fans imo.

You might enjoy this book by my favorite author.

http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/0307389839

These kids today just have no appreciation for the great literature of the '70s.

Absolutely. I got a real love of science reading various books through school. A few recommendations:

Achilles in the quantum universe

Absolute zero

Zero: Biography of a dangerous idea

I suppose Achilles and Zero are more about math than science or engineering, but I really liked them.

China would likely move south in order to expand their borders and create some sort of buffer zone. They would also secure their border to contain refugees. They are not fond of North Korean civilians. This book talks about it, as the guy escaped and travelled through China to get to South Korea, all while being hunted by authorities who would have sent him straight back to the North.

The "Oxford English Dictionary"

the story of its creation is a pretty good read, too.

One of my favorites on the history of zero by Charles Seife. Short, interesting, and well-explained. Has some challenging math concepts later in the book.

http://www.amazon.com/Zero-The-Biography-Dangerous-Idea/dp/0140296476/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346799685&sr=8-1&keywords=zero+the+biography+of+a+dangerous+idea

I don't know the article, but The Professor and the Madman is a fantastic book about it.

This is just a tip and can be applied to anything:

Haruki Murakami in his book What I Talk About When I Talk About Running said that you should only write until you recognize that you can still write more. That's when you stop for the day. The idea is that your mind will keep thinking about it and build new ideas and store the ideas until the next time that you sit down again to write. He also says that doing this makes it easier to get back into the groove of writing the next day because you're excited to get your ideas out. I have been doing this and it does help me.

1995, mostly about lost highway. http://www.lynchnet.com/lh/lhpremiere.html
also found in A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again
https://www.amazon.com/Supposedly-Fun-Thing-Never-Again/dp/0316925284/
an excellent read throughout that gets to the core of how lynch works

Its illogical to be able to take anything (even zero) away from zero. zero is a weird little digit we use as both a placeholder and to represent 'nothing'. Zero is not a thing which can be broken into pieces.

There is a GREAT book I read a while back that goes into a whole lot of depth on the idea of zero. I found it very interesting, you might too.

found a link to it on amazon, maybe you could find it at a library... (or online if you're better at the internet than me)
Zero The Biography of a Dangerous Idea

NYT bestseller and it's very popular on Amazon. Might check it out.

http://www.amazon.com/Glass-Castle-Memoir-Jeannette-Walls/dp/074324754X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1310196193&sr=8-1

Added a new chapter to Five for Iron, set five years before canon. (Here's the ff.net link, for anyone who prefers that site.) Anywho, this chapter is my first from Winter's POV, and I'm hoping I did an OK job with that, while still keeping the premise engaging.

Reading:
I finished Cadillac Desert this week, and I've gotten about 100 pages into Animal, Vegetable, Miracle since then. Both are brilliantly written and wonderfully subversive, but considering my line of work I may be a smidge biased.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. It is a sort of memoir written by her, her husband, and their daughter (they take turns with different chapters) where they discuss a year of eating locally, sustainably, and growing/making their own food. It is a great book (both in audio and in print!)

Book is outstanding too. Autobiography.

Right up there with Shantaram.

The Glass Castle, by Jennette Walls was the last book I remember enjoying before school killed my love for reading. (They made us annotate purely Charles Dickens, making us ignore plot, but rather focus on rhetorical devices; and even then I wasn't too fond of his tales). As of now, my English AP class is having us read Narrative of the Life of a Slave by Frederick Douglass. This is the first book we are reading in-class this school year, but this is the first time I get to read without annotating and can actually enjoy the book!!

Elie Weisel's Night is an astonishing look at the horrors of World War II.

Murakami's What I Talk About When I Talk About Running covers mostly the ins and outs, mundane to nontrivial aspects of his writing career.

If you're interested in a graphic novel type of autobiography, there are two that are excellent:
Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis and Yoshihiro Tatsumi's A Drifting Life. The former is Satrapi's account of a young girl growing up in Iran and the latter is Tatsumi's perspective on post-war Japan. Both are very good.

It's hard to follow The Glass Castle - such a compelling read. I'm also a fan of memoirs and really enjoyed Her Last Death by Susanna Sonnenberg. I have mommy issues, so I identified with the author quite a bit. Also, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggars. Emotionally taxing at times, from what I recall (need to give this another read), but really worth it.

This is an incredible book on this exact subject. The author worked in the heart of the propaganda machine and was responsible for coming up with the stupid, mythological stories about the amazing feats of the Dear Leader that are taught to North Korean kids as fact. He knew it was all nonsense but his life was relatively great so it wasn't in his interest to rebel. He did start to doubt the regime though, inevitably, and eventually escaped.

I read this book in about two sittings - I couldn't put it down, it's so gripping! What was incredibly fascinating was how he explained the ascent of Kim Jung-il, the son of Kim il-Sung. Kim Jung-il hated his father and wasn't actually chosen to succeed Kim il-Sung, as it's commonly believed. Kim Jung-il orchestrated a power grab before his father's death using his relatively low-level job in the propaganda office. In his job, he realised the true potential of propaganda and how it could be used to manipulate and control. He used his position to control the flow of information to his father before eventually cutting him off completely. This allowed him to set up an alternative centre of power around himself, the real power, alongside the pretend power of his father. Fascinating stuff.


https://www.amazon.com/Dear-Leader-Escape-North-Korea/dp/1476766568/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1492589026&sr=8-1&keywords=Dear+Leader%3A+My+Escape+from+North+Korea

http://www.amazon.com/Marijuana-Safer-Driving-People-Drink/dp/1603581448/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1312130148&sr=1-2

This one is the best IMO.

The best description I've ever read of why to go Uncircumcised was in Dan Savage's book The Kid

https://www.amazon.com/Great-Stagnation-Low-Hanging-Eventually-eSpecial-ebook/dp/B004H0M8QS

You can find pirate PDF copies with a bit of google-fu.

The comparison to the gilded age is totally laughable, we're in such a period of stagnation, with people fleeing any type of risk (and the associated growth) by any means necessary.

The gilded age, and it's "problems" were all pretty much a consequence of breakneck, unbridled, explosive growth.

They were at a rolling boil, we're not even at a simmer.

Have you already read Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver?

One of the best courses I've had in college was the history of math. It was a one quarter class so it obviously couldn't cover everything but instead focused on the universal problem of measuring areas and volumes, starting roughly some discovered papyrus scrolls from Egyptians trying to measure plots of land to Newton and Leibniz inventing calculus.

As others have said, it didn't really teach you math. I had already taken several higher level math classes and calculus was a requirement, but it was really interesting to see how trying to answer that question was refined over time.

I think one problem with learning math along side the history of math is we have much better techniques for solving problems now. One of the touch things about the course was trying to figure out the various proofs because they went through very complicated steps which we now take for granted.

Not related to the course, but I really recommend the book Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea which talks about how the number 0 came to be, what problems it caused when people were coming up with the concept, and what ideas it continues to cause today.

You should read the Biography of Zero. Great read.

http://www.amazon.com/Zero-The-Biography-Dangerous-Idea/dp/0140296476

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. Murakami.

http://www.amazon.com/What-About-Running-Vintage-International/dp/0307389839/ref=tmm_pap_title_0

Murakami is an international bestseller. He also runs quite a bit. It's filled with great musings.

Here is a great book on what not to do.

Ken ilgunas' book Walden on Wheels is a great read about just this.

https://www.amazon.com/Walden-Wheels-Open-Road-Freedom/dp/054402883X

The Glass Castle is a great read

The Education of a Coach - David Halberstam. Great book about Bill Belichick

https://www.amazon.com/Dear-Leader-Escape-North-Korea/dp/1476766568

Great book.

I know this is a little late, but you should check out A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. It's memoir-like, a true story, but it's written in a very light and readable way. The author lost his parents within a few months of each other and ended up having to raise his 8-year-old brother. As depressing as that sounds, the book is really brisk and often hilarious. It's a book I think everybody should read, but it sounds like it may be exactly what you're looking for as well.

This was great, thanks for the link.

If you haven't read his book A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius I highly reccomend it. It turns its own pages.

He wrote extensively on the subject of adaptations, movies, and how he'd like his work to be seen and treated in the future.

Folks discussing Tolkien's intentions and desires who have not read this book are doing both themselves and their arguments a great disservice.

Have you ever read The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls?

It is equally amazing, engrossing, and super hard to read.

This book states that these women 'serve' between the ages of 17-24 and that they're selected at the age of 13. This book then states that "Pleasure girls retired from the corps at 22, after which they were often married off to other members of the elite."

Why are you specifically choosing a same-sex couple? I'm a lesbian and seriously want to thank you for making a decision that will mean the world to one lucky couple.

On a related note, Dan Savage and his partner adopted their son in an open adoption. I highly recommend his book, The Kid.

/u/rarelyserious just recommended me this book, and now I'm itching to read it. :3 It's a physical book!

Thank you for thisssss. I looove you.

To anyone unawares, the film is based on a book!

It's my favorite Depp performance!

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson. Not 100% non fiction, but definately one of the funniest books I have ever read.

Read Fever Pitch for one. Also Arsènal: The Making of a Modern Superclub is helpful. Going back through Arseblog's archives and the matchday threads on r/gunners couldn't hurt either.

http://www.amazon.com/Fever-Pitch-Nick-Hornby/dp/1573226882/

http://www.amazon.com/Arsenal-The-Making-Modern-Superclub/dp/1907637311

Have you read Dan Savage's book about the process? It is called the kid, it is from 2000 so you should be able to find a second hand one in a used bookstore by now.

I have seen other redditors asking this over in /r/lgbt if you want to search for previous posts over there.

Set in the 1930s and the inspiration for the Steve McQueen film: Papillion by Henri Charrière.

I suggest reading The Glass Castle It is about rising above family circumstances. You may find some inspiration here.

Honestly?

Nick Hornby.

The Talisman-by Stephen King and Peter Straub. The authors then continued the story with a second book called Black House. http://www.amazon.com/The-Talisman-Novel-Stephen-King/dp/145169721X
An amazing fantasy adventure for any age. A good bridge for you as well. Other adventure fantasy type books that I felt were ageless, A Boys life- by Robert McCammon. http://www.amazon.com/Boys-Life-Robert-McCammon/dp/0671743058 Anything and everything Jack London. Read Stephen King short stories then move onto Edgar Allen Poe. To kill a mocking bird- by Harper Lee http://www.amazon.com/To-Kill-Mockingbird-Harper-Lee/dp/0446310786 A Watership Down- By Richard Adams http://www.amazon.com/Watership-Down-Novel-Richard-Adams/dp/0743277708 Of Mice And Men- by John Steinbeck http://www.amazon.com/Of-Mice-Men-John-Steinbeck/dp/0140177396
Then you may want to move on to another type of adventure.
Into the Wild- by Jon Krakauer. http://www.amazon.com/Into-Wild-Jon-Krakauer/dp/0385486804 Every book is a bridge to another and so on. I could name so many more, but each book will lead you to them.

This book - Dear Leader - really explained it well to me through the eyes of a defector who had actually met Kim Jong-Il and was his poet laureate.

It was fascinating how he went from believing the propaganda to seeing the truth.

My favorite book!

There's a personal memoir that's pretty much all about this. http://www.amazon.com/Glass-Castle-Memoir-Jeannette-Walls/dp/074324754X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1462804591&sr=8-1&keywords=glass+castle

There's a nice book about it!

I will always suggest reading this. One of my favorite books ever. Trumps the movie by leaps and bounds.

Advanced in the sense that they had the number zero and Europe didn't.

It's such a huge deal, there are entire books on why it was such an advanced concept for the time.

A random selection of non-fiction recommendations for /u/MindOfMetalAndWheels:

• A Crack in Creation, by Jennifer Doudna
  
• Debt: The First 5000 Years, by David Graeber
  
• One Good Turn, by Witold Rybczynski
  
• The Drunkard's Walk, by Leonard Mlodinow
  
• The Professor and the Madman, by Simon Winchester
  
• The Secret Lives of Colour, by Kassia St Clair
  
• The Storm Before the Storm, by Mike Duncan
  
• Gentlemen's Blood, by Barbara Holland

What I saw about your childhood made me think of this book. http://www.amazon.com/The-Glass-Castle-A-Memoir/dp/074324754X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347259290&sr=8-1&keywords=glass+castle
It's a good book, you should read it.

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. Such a nice read, whether or not you're a (ultra)marathoner.

> I've plateaued recently and I was hoping to take this time to take a step back and read up on the basics before I injure myself any further

May I suggest a different avenue? Maybe instead of delving to the science of running during your plateau, read about the why: https://www.amazon.com/What-Talk-About-When-Running/dp/0307389839

someone send this book to this kids parents.
Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are They Driving People to Drink

If you are interested in this kind of thing, Dear Leader: Poet, Spy, Escapee is a must read. He is an insider who escaped and gives unprecedented inside views.

If you haven't read this already, Tolkien's Letters include some of his own words on the subject. There's even an index to help you locate relevant quotes.

That's just wrong that Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle didn't even make the list... it was one of the top 3 imo. (I loved the audiobook, her whole family reads their chapters)

Have you ever read Haruki Murakami's What I Talk About When I Talk About Running? It's his memoir as a Japanese author who writes all of his books in English and his love of running. When he talks about running and writing it's all about endurance. He says that sometimes his running is probably slower than walking but he just keeps going.

You will have more time to study. You may want to read: https://www.amazon.com/Walden-Wheels-Open-Road-Freedom/dp/054402883X

I'd suggest you live in your current car before you go to university if you can, even if only for a couple of weeks. See how you like it, and don't cheat. If it is OK but you just need to make a couple of tweaks, good to go. If it is miserable or stressful and you think somehow a pretty van with high tech gizmos will make it work -- I'd caution against going forward.

This is a good place to start. If I weren't a lazy shit I'd dig up some of the letters that Lewis and him traded, but I can't find them anymore.